"Life ... is never the way one imagines it. It surprised you, it amazes you, and it makes you laugh of cry when you don't expect it." -- Niki de Saint Phalle.
Niki de Saint Phalle is best known for her oversized figures which embrace contradictory qualities such as good and evil, modern and primitive, sacred and profane, play and terror. Her exaggerated "earth mother" sculptures, the Nanas, playfully explore the ancient tradtion of feminine deities while celebrating modern feminism's efforts to reconsider and revalue the woman's body. In recent years de Saint Phalle has made monsters and beasts into architectural forms for playgrounds and schools. These works demonstrate her deep interest in architects like Antonia Gaudi, who made organic fluid buildings incorporating wild fantasies and everyday objects. Her collaboration with the Swiss artist Jean Tinguely on a landmark fountain for the plaza of the Centre Pompidou in Paris is world renowned. The marketing success of Niki de Saint Phalle perfume allowed the artist to fulfill a dream to create a park in northern Italy full of giant sculptures based on Tarot cards. She continues to work on these huge tile and broken mirror-co ...